The Next Beifong
by Artemst
Summary: The surname Beifong is famous. Everyone knows it. So what's the price of being the next in line of this legendary heritage? Toph's grandson would like to know.


**A/N: I shouldn't be writing this, I'm having my mid-year exams next freaking week. What the eff am I doing with my life? **

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"No one can deny that the name Beifong was very well known in the world. Even before the advent of Avatar Aang, the Beifongs, by Lao Beifong's hardwork, were the richest and more influencial estate in Gaoling, located in Southern Earth Kingdom. Toph Beifong, despite being blind and shrouded from the world, emerged like the lotus she was named after, and discovered the sub-element of metal-bending. She also founded many academies dedicated to the art as well as the Republic City's Metalbending Corps to which she had handed the reins to her daughter Lin Beifong to continue. The family business however did not fall into shambles, the reins were passed onto Toph's son, Kao Beifong, who made it prosper, all the while being fair to the land and its people." He didn't even need to refer to the history book that the passage was written in to recite it. _..and then, there's me._

Keph Beifong sighed, his spirits down-trodden. His eyes were trained the semi-crowded platform of the Central City Station, sitting on his oversized luggage trunk. He had been reciting bits and pieces of the Great Scriptures while waiting for his pick-up. His parents had warned him not to take his eyes off his luggage, especially since it was pre-holiday rush. He raked a hand through his hair and replaced the polished hairband on his head to keep the unruly hair he had inheirited from his grandmother away from his face. Apparently, it was the only thing than he had inheirited from the prodigious earthbender. Oh, and his bending too, but he could hardly control that, so it didn't count did it?

Someone bumped into him, muttering a hurried and somewhat insincere apology. Keph didn't mind though, no one could blame a kid for bumping into others on a platform as crowded as- his wallet was gone. "Crap." He spotted the young boy who had bumped into him and made chase, discreetly moving his luggage between two benches. He wasn't that worried about his luggage trunk as to his wallet. The luggage trunk was made entirely out of a light-weight but impressively strong metal, so only metal-benders would be able to unlock it without a key, besides, if it was lost, they'd always send it to the police because of the tags on it. The wallet however, held his passport and his identification card.

"Hey kid!" He yelled over the sea of people. "I'll give you half the money inside there if you give me back my ID!" The boy seemed to have slowed down, scrutinizing the information. If he was willing to give up the money, then there must be something more important in the wallet, otherwise, he was being baited. The boy stopped, rifling through the few hundred yuans, wide-eyed.

"Thank you." Keph said, reaching out for the wallet. The boy looked up, Keph was faster than he thought, already having caught up to him.

"Skoochy, go long!" He shouted, tossing the wallet high over Keph's head.

"Aye!" Another street-urchin caught the wallet with natural ease, tearing down the street.

Keph felt anger, no, _annoyance_ boiling in him, that dangerous emotion that had caused him to accidentally unleash his earth bending, something he hated. _Control..._ he breathed, running after the boy. _No bending, no bending.. _He reminded himself.

He was caught in an elaborate net of tossing and throwing and chasing. Soon, he was quite lost in the maze of alleyways that the street children were hiding in. But he still hadn't lost sight of his wallet yet, thankfully. They had gotten cocky, taunting him. As the great philosopher Moon Tze had said, 'Weakness is evident in arrogance.' Keph was able to single out the slowest one. It was a boy who had a minor limp in his trot. He was about to pounce on the boy when the children's laughter stopped abruptly.

"Well, well, well, what do we 'ave here?" The obvious colors of a fire-bender was seen on the taller of the two men. The man pushed himself off the wall he was leaning against. "I thought I told you kids to keep off Monsoon territory." The limping boy backed away with a terror-stricken gaze, he blanched. "Wasn't the lesson Hakum taught you enough?" The firebender said, tilting his head to indicate the limping leg. "I think you need to teach him some more, Hakum."

The other man grinned sadisticly, making his way to stand before the boy. "Eeyup, Jin."

"Have mercy, sirs.." The boy quivered.

"We sure have mercy," Jin said, "But we're not doling it out for free." He grabbed the wallet and whistled at the amout of money inside. "You've been busy! Now where did you get this pretty pursie?"

"Run Zhe-Re, run!" The others rasped from the shadows of the alleyway. He did, but Hakum froze a piece of ice under his step and Zhe-Re fell face first, twisting his foot. Still, he did his best to struggle away before Hakum could hurt him again. Keph was standing just under the shadow casted by the alleyway.

_..Isn't this a little too cliched?_ Was he supposed to play hero here? _Besides, it's a wallet, not a purse._ Sure as hell he wouldn't be able to win without the use of his bending, and if he did use his bending...well, let's just say his aunt wouldn't be too chummy about the after effects. _WHOA! _He jumped out of his shade and blocked the kick Hakum sent at the kid...With his face. To his defense, it was by accident that he forgot there was a patch of ice on the floor. Admittedly, it didn't hurt much, considering Hakum had held back, only wishing to play. "They seem to be poppin' out like badger-moles today." Hakum said.

"Oww.." Keph rubbed the spot where his face had connected with the boot. "Do you even know what a badger-mole is? You look like you've never touched a book before."

"Wha' was that!" Hakum, dim as he was, could smell an insult half a mile away. _Huh_.

"Absolutely nothing!" Keph said as he grabbed Zhe-Re and made a run for it, side-stepping the ice. "Now will you listen when I ask you to give me back my wallet?" He said to Zhe-Re under his arm, who was nodding frevently. Keph ducked into the alleyway, narrowly missing the fire ball aimed at him. Okay, maybe he _could_ just bend a little bit. Just a _little_ to get them off his back.

And maybe get his wallet too.

Keph planted his legs firmly, he turned to face Jin and Hakum. But before he could even feel the ground, a person landed a kick right into the cocky fire-bender's face, knocking him out in one blow. The newcomer landed nimbly, catching the wallet that Jin had let go when he had kicked him. The stranger was somewhat lanky, but not nearly as tall as Keph was and had half of his face shaded by a cap. "I didn't know the Monsoons had resorted to pick-pocketing to raise funds. I thought you had standards." He tossed the wallet at Keph. "And to kids, no less." The person looked no older than Keph, who had recently celebrated his 18th birthday. He side-stepped the ice javelin that Hakum threw at him and dashed forward, body swaying deftly, avoiding all of the projectiles easily. Hakum made a grab for the teenager when he was within range, but the boy pushed both of Hakum's arms away with a few sharp hits to the inside of his elbow and forearms. Hakum felt the strength in his arms fail him as they were repeled, leaving him wide open as the youth smashed his fist into Hakum's face.

Hakum seemed to have recognized who he was as the fist connected with his jaw, making him black out as he bit his tongue. The youth stood back, dusting off his hands. He spared a glance at Keph in all his dishelved glory who was gawking at what he had just witnessed. "..Are you okay?" He chanced, readjusting his cap which had gone askew.

"Err, um yeah." Keph said as he was caught being in awe, quickly regaining his composeur.

Zhe-Re who was curled up in the corner during the fight immediately brightened at seeing the youth. "Yayoi!" He wrapped his arms around the youth. "I haven't seen you in a long time, how's Ariya?" Zhe-re asked, the other children came out and crowded around Yayoi who smiled. He was easily the tallest in the group and Keph couldn't help but notice the admiring look he got from all of the children.

"You only want to know about Ari don't you?" Yayoi playfully ruffled the kid's hair. "We've been busy, to make up for not coming to see you guys in so long, I'm treating you to meatbuns!" There was a chorus of cheers from the children.

But Skoochy looked questioningly at Yayoi. "How're you gonna pay for seven meatbuns?" Yayoi squatted down by the fallen Red Monsoon gangsters and dug around their pockets, successfully fishing out several rolls of cash, undoubtedly accquired from shops who are under their so called 'protection'. "There we go. That's about three hundred yuans, almost enough for a full course meal at Kuang's."

"Isn't that stealing?" Keph who was previously ignored spoke up.

"Welcome to Republic City country bumpkin. If you haven't noticed, they were Runners, these money isn't theirs anyhow. Besides, these kids need them more." Yayoi replied, leading the children to the nearest meatbun shop. He had a point though. They were all dressed in old, faded and tattered clothes, and were probably living on the streets. Keph hadn't realized the true impact of poverty in Republic City yet although he had read of many cases in the newspapers.

"Excuse me, Yayoi, was it?" He caught up to them.

"Are you going to lecture me again, _Oh_ noble one?" Yayoi asked in a sarcastic tone, for the first time since he saw Yayoi, he noticed that Yayoi had different colored eyes, one blue and one brown. He couldn't help but find them pretty. "Well?"

"I was just wondering if you could bring me back to Central City Station?" Keph said. "I'm hopelessly lost."

Yayoi rolled his eyes and snorted. "Come on then, country bumpkin."

"I have a name you know." Keph said.

"What, Lin Beifong, Police Cheif?" Yayoi laughed, the children chortled along.

_Oh, the irony. _Keph thought, inwardly rolling his eyes. "No, my name is Keph."

There was a small pause. Keph was worried he had been immediately recognized. But they snorted and started laughing at the sheer weirdness of the name.

* * *

Keph was greeted by his aunt in the Police Headquarters, not really a place for family reunions, but at least he got front row seats to see his aunt wrestle down a convict who had tried escaping and the interrogation as well. He had heard that she was a fearsome woman at work, a contrast to when she was back with the family for holidays. With the family, she was frank, but in a more familiar way than the no-nonsense-crush-your-soul kind of tone she had when facing convicts. She was a very busy woman, so by the time she had finished with the last of her day's work, it was well into the evening.

"You must be hungry. I'm sorry I took so long, kid." She said, her voice gruff. Keph knew that she was technically still at work, so she would hate to seem too friendly. Though he felt like he had reverted back to the time when he was a kid where Aunt Lin's visits were rare but welcome, bringing along her extensive amount of experience and stories to tell Keph.

"No problem, Cheif Beifong." Keph said, trying to get the feeling of the words to roll more fluently off his tongue. They had loaded his luggage into Lin's Satomobile, and were cruising down the motorway. "Can I start calling you Aunt Lin now?" He asked cheekily earning a bark of laughter from Lin. They chatted animatedly, Keph filling her in about many things from Gaoling and she told him quite some of the most ridiculous things that had happened in town that even made the usually unimpressed Police Captain laugh. He even managed to see her road raging.

"We're going for dinner first," Aunt Lin said, swerving into an older part of the City. "It's one of my favorite places, I think I brought you here once when you were still a midget." She parked the Satomobile smoothly, within inches of the curb. Aunt Lin was now in less conspicous civilian wear, wearing a hat for good measure, looking like any middle-aged lady that was miling around the busy Old Town Hawker Street, except for the fact that she could whoop ass. "Now my dear boy, the really tasty stuff is all here, and not in those snobby high-class restaurants in High End District." If there was anything Aunt Lin was passionate about, it was good food, a fact that very few people knew.

Keph took in the buildings around the area, most of them were like the Central City Station, somewhat dulled by age and mostly made of wood and stone, a stark contrast to the glisteningly modern sky-scrapers he had seen from the train carriages on his way here. But there was a certain kind of warmth within these old buildings, made livelier with the people miling around. Aunt Lin had told him that it was so crowded because it was a Friday night, when her favorite restaurant

'Phoenix's Nest' would always have a performance. What kind of performance though, she didn't mention. The feel of the restaurant was rather rustic, with wooden floorboards and traditional decorations on the wall. There were also several watercolor paintings on the wall, marked with calligraphy at the side.

"Those are paintings that they sell actually." Aunt Lin informed Keph, who was scrutinizing the landscape painting of Omashu, it looked rather sloppy though. "They employ a rather interesting way of creating them. So people are willing to buy them."

In the short time since they were seated, a waitress came by to take their order. Indecisive, Keph allowed Aunt Lin to make the orders and was just soaking in the ambience of the place. They had gotten a table on the wooden second floor balcony that overlooked the stage. Soon, the lights dimmed drawing their focus to a lone musician that had walked onto the rickety stage, holding an Er-hu. "A very good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Phoenix's Nest. As for this week's music night, we will be starting off with our customary tea serving ceremony!" He said. He positioned himself on the stool on the stage as a dozen waiters and waitresses streamed out of the side doors, each carrying trays of empty tea cups and tea pots. The steaming hot water and tea leaves were placed on seperate dishes.

"We got lucky." Aunt Lin said as the waiter placed the tray on their table, his obvious water tribe feaures gave away what they were about to do to Keph.

"They're going to bend the tea?" He asked. The music started, a long and slow note sounded from the Er-Hu. The water-bending waiters pulled up the glob of hot water in time with the music. Then the musician launched into a frenzied tune, all the while, the water bending waiters worked with their partners to cool down the water for the optimum temperature for the tea. Keph was awed by their dexterity as they mixed the water with the tea leaves, letting the aroma flood the restaurant.

The tea flowed in large arches as the musician pulled the final cresendo, at last letting the tea swirl into the tea cups that had been distributed by means of earthbending.

"Hey, close your mouth kid, you're going to let flies in." Aunt Lin chuckled as she took up her cup of tea. The crowd was clapping. The waiter bowed politely as he left, accidentally knocking into another water bending waitress almost half his size and causing her to fall foward and into Keph's lap, upsetting his tea. Her tray slipped from her hands over the balcony.

"Oh no!" She yelp as the empty tea cups and tray fell, "Watch out!" But her worry was needless because Lin had acted within that split-second, catching the tea cups and tray with her earth bending. She moved them onto the table with swipe of her fingers. "Thank you.." The girl said. "And I'm so sorry about the mess." She said, adding to the apologies the other waiter had been saying. She gingerly got off Keph's lap, somewhat embarassed for ruining his shirt. "I'm truly, really sorry for all of this, Sir and Ma'am." She bowed deeply.

"Accidents happen. It's not you're fault." Aunt Lin said, taking a sip of the tea. "But you'd have to watch where you're going, boy." She said, addressing the first waiter.

"Yes Ma'am. Truly, very sorry." They said curtly as they replaced Keph's tea and retreated. Keph was strangly quiet, Aunt Lin quirked an eyebrow and looked at her nephew. His face had an expression that Lin had seen only once in her life, on her elder brother Kao Beifong. She nearly spat out her tea. Her dignity was thankfully saved when she managed to swallow her tea before she started guffawing.

Keph was absolutely smitten.

He looked indignantly at his aunt who was trembling with laughter, obviously aware of his stupid slack jawed expression and beet red face. "What?" He rubbed his neck, remembering the girl's bright blue eyes. "I haven't seen that look since your dad met your mother." It wasn't everyday you could see Cheif Beifong laughing her guts out in the most out of character manner. Keph pulled Aunt Lin's hat over her face. "Hey, show some respect brat, I'm still your aunt." She said, still chuckling as the food came. Even though Keph had been sent to Republic City against his will, he was having a relatively good time, though he could hardly make a coherent sentence when the petite waitress came by. It was pathethic. But on the flipside, Lin had new material to taunt her nephew about.

He doubt that she would let him hear the last of it for the next twenty years.

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**A/N: Well, at least it's out of my system. I have no idea when the next chapter will come out, but if you do have interest, feel free to drop a review. Btw, Keph arrives in RC about one or two weeks before Korra does. **

**Keph's name is written 刻福 北方in chinese as Ke Fu, which Ke means 'carve' and Fu means 'prosperity'. But it is homonymous to the term 'overcome'.**


End file.
